In the fall I submitted a proposal to create a public artwork to honor Helen Stevens as part of the A.R.R.O.W.S. program at Boston University. Helen Stevens was a chemist who, after graduating from Boston University with her A.B. degree in 1905, began working as an assistant to Prof. Lyman Newell, who founded the Chemistry department at BU in 1904. In 1921, Helen wrote a thesis called A scheme for the identification of the carbohydrates, which describes a series of tests that can be used to identify different types of sugars. In her thesis, Helen describes the different color reactions that occur when different elements are added to different types of sugars. I was interested in her research because I was simultaneously learning more about the chemistry of dye in my Fabric Dye elective. I was curious about the overlap between the chemistry tests that Stevens described in her thesis and the chemistry involved in dyeing different types of fabric and how I could visualize her work through art. At the end of February, I met with Professor Didem Vardar-Ulu to do a series of carbohydrate tests similar to those in Steven's thesis. (We decided not to do several of the experiments in Steven's thesis because they are now considered very toxic.) When I got to the lab, Professor Vardar-Ulu had set up the materials. I shadowed her teaching assistant as she showed me how to perform the first series of tests. Pictured above are the results from Tollen's Test (middle) and Chromic Acid Test and Iodoform Test (right). I soon got the hang of how the procedure worked, I started performing some of the tets on my own. On the left is an in-process photo of Barfoed's Test and on the right is a picture of Benetict's Test. We also did three types of Starch Tests. In the first one, I added a few drops of chromic acid to small samples of table salt, sugar, corn starch, bread flour, and milk powder. In the second starch test, I observed how the chromic acid effected cooked rice and a potato. In the third test, I observed how the chromic acid reacted to liquid solutions of glucose, fructose, lactose, and sucrose.
It was a lot of fun doing these carbohydrate tests and gaining first-hand knowledge about why certain carbohydrates react to certain elements. Stay tuned for my next steps related to this project!
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à la ligne, string and thread on denim, stained with fabric dye and bleach, 10 x 8 inches This semester I tried some new ways of working. The piece above was created for an assignment I had early in the semester. Our assignment was to create a painting inspired by a piece of art that we don't like. I first fell in love with painting when I saw impressionist paintings in high school, but have always disliked Renior. His chalky pastel palette is off-putting and his forms often lack definition. They're so etherial, like they're made of someone's hot breath. But the assignment intrigued me. I started looking at his paintings online and came across the painting Le pêcheur à la ligne. I was drawn to the phthelo green + beige color palette and marks he used, so decided to try and reproduce those elements of the piece, minus the subject matter. The first thing I did was turn the reproduction of the painting upside down as a way to isolate the colors and marks. Working from "back to front," I poured fabric dye on a canvas of stitched jeans that I had made earlier. Then I added some bleach to the dye. I worked back and forth until I created a "stain" to work on top of. Then I began adding lime green stitches to the denim using my sewing machine and drawing with a royal blue marker to describe some of the forms I observed, like the flittering leaves of the vegetation. Then, for several hours, I continued layering machine stitches, hand embroidery, and loose threads to the surface until the image felt resolved. I really enjoyed the assignment. It was a practice in empathy. I learned to appreciate the technique of someone's work who I usually have a negative reaction to. It was a little like being locked in a room with an enemy and being forced to find common ground. Left: A Piece of Me, A Piece of You, acrylic, spray paint, oil pastels, string and thread on sewn canvas and repurposed clothing, 18 x 22 inches Right: Love Quote, repurposed clothing and mesh on sewn canvas, stained with fabric dye, and oil on pre-primed canvas, 22 x 18 inches I continued experimenting with mark-making throughout the semester. Above are two different examples of experiments in mark-making that I tried. On the left, I layered a lot of different colored sewing machine stitches on top of paint, spray-paint, and oil pastel until the colors began to blend together. This caused the canvas to warp and buckle. I had seen this technique several years ago in a video of Rebecca Ringquist explaining her process and knew that I wanted to try it at some point. On the left, I created individual marks with the machine, dispersing them across the canvas. To me, they start to resemble letters or characters from an alphabet. Detail of A Piece of Me, A Piece of You To see more of the work I made this semester, click on the tabs pieced and painted and fabric paintings.
I recently experimented with natural dye. I have been wanting to try this for a while and recently found some time to do it. The process was relatively simple and I LOVE the results! The first step was to collect all of the skins. I collected the skins from at least a dozen onions over a couple of months. I stored them in an empty yogurt container (and later realized I could have kept them in the fridge, rather than on the counter). Once I had enough, I put all of the skins in a large pot of water and set it to boil. (I boiled some of the water in an electric kettle to make this process go a bit faster. Once the water boiled, I turned the heat on low and let the skins sit for a couple of hours. Next I strained the dye into a glass bowl and layered some canvas into the bowl. I put a glass jar of water on top of the canvas to press it down and set the bowl outside (so that the smell didn't stink up our apartment). I left the canvas to soak in the dye for a few ours, then removed it and let it air dry on top of a few plastic bags. After the canvas dried, I brought it to my studio. I decided to use some of the first batch of dyed fabric for one of my drawing assignments: to make a drawing response to a poem. I chose Mary Oliver's Song for Autumn. I love that I can feel her presence when I read her poetry. Like I am right there with her, traipsing through the marsh or walking by the sea. In response to her poem, I created several drawings of trees at night. I wanted the experience of observing to come through and to experiment with my sensory experience of looking.
I transfered one of my drawings onto the canvas and then stitched the lines by hand. |
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